Forlong - Rivers of Life

Serpent and Phallic Worship.
Dravidian strongholds in the south: Brahmanism did not, as a cultivated faith, favour
more than the symbolism, although even near its headquarter shrines, were to be found
by those who sought, the actual living reptile; yet ignorant fanatics abundantly kept
and regularly worshipped the god, both real and symbolically. Numerous stories reach
us of how the King of Manipoor used to worship a great Raj-naga, called Pak-ang-ba, 1
from whom he considered he was directly descended. This Snake had Priestesses to
attend upon it, who daily sat in the temple watching its every move, and ministering
carefully to its wants. In Central India, near Sambalpore, there are races who say
they worship a great snake, which “has received in a cave ever since the world
began.” It reverses the Sabbatarian doctrine and sleeps six days, and on the seventh
comes forth from its house; and for a very good reason too; as it is then regaled on a
whole goat, when, after a plunge into a canal, cut for its recreations around its
dwelling, it retires to its weekley slumbers. A Mr Mott saw this monster in 1766, and
says “it was some 2 feet in diameter;” 2 and Major Kitto confimrs this when he saw it
seventy years later, in 1836; this officer says he has no doubt that many such exist,
and could be found if we set about properly to look for them.
Especially has the Serpent had a most enduring and happy lot in that gem of the
ocean—Ceylon; he is there still, no scotched faith, although many a faith and
sect has swept tumultuously over this isle’s impenetrable woods and mountain
fastnesses. It is 2100 years since Boodhism claimed the island as her own special
paradise, and this it has been ever since, if not so always in the eyes of its immediate
rulers, yet always so in those of distant Boodhists; these, for at least 1800 years, have
ever looked upon the island with filial love and reverence; yet, to this hour, the
Serpent is, with the great mass of the lower claas, an object of much more real adoration
than Boodha himself.
Many Eastern potentates have claimed direct descent from the Serpent, and
curiously enough he seems more in favour with the Vishnoo sects than Sivaites, and is
more abundantly sculptured on Vishnoova shrines than on the other, though he has
nothing in common with the softer emotions of love which Vishnoovas affect above
that of their brethren. As devoted to the feminine energy, and often putting aside
the Lingam with abhorrence, of course the Vishnooite can plead that the Serpent more
particularly belongs to him, because to Luna, Isis, Eva, or the Yoni; and indeed
mankind will be generally on his side; in this respect, rather than on that of the
professedly severe and ascetic Sivaite. Wherever we look we find this symbol of
Passion, the moat loved, or at all events, the most prominent object in the. wodd of
old faiths. I believe he ought to be shown in broader and more intense colours in this
chart, but I have endeavoured in these points to rather understate the facts and never
anywhere to press doubtful evidence.
1
Tak, Pak, hence Hag, &c., are all terms applied to the Serpent from China to Armorika
2
and Scotland.
More probably “circumference.”
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